Celine Kiernan's Blog, page 5

Lemoncello sing live at Raggedy Witches book launch

Thanks to everyone who turned up at the Begone the Raggedy Witches book launch last Thursday. Oh man, it was packed out, people came from London, Wexford, Cork, Belfast, Galway, Navan and Dublin. Folk brought cake (cake!) It was such a warm, happy, loving event. I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you, thank you for all your support.

I was thrilled to introduce everyone to the fantastic Lemoncello and to hear the full Raggedy Witches song performed live at the event. I think you’ll agree, this duo is amazing. ( Thanks to Conor Hackett for taking the above footage of their performance. I hope to make an animated video for the entire song later this year. And thanks too, to Toomey AudioVisual for handling the sound on the night)

It’s been a hectic and exciting week, and I’ve had a lot of fun. But I need to retreat for a little while now as I’ve a very tight deadline for the structural edits on Raggedy 2. I might be a wee bit quiet for a while. Until I return, enjoy this beautiful performance and (hopefully) enjoy Raggedy Witches too.

Begone the Raggedy Witches Booktrailer

So glad to be able to share this with you at last!

The animated booktrailer for Begone the Raggedy Witches.

This features original music inspired by the book and written by LemonCello.

They’ll be playing the full song at the book launch this Thursday, Feb 15th, at 6.30 in Easons Ireland on O’Connell St Dublin. Hope to see you there!

(Video animated by me, using Victoria Semykina‘s glorious artwork from the cover of Walker Books UK edition)

You can buy Begone the Raggedy Witches at the following places:

Easons

Dubray

 

Book Depository

Foyles

Hive

Waterstones

WHSmith

More Raggedy Witches Animation

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Still messing about with gifs as I animate the book trailer for ‘Begone the Raggedy Witches‘. This is Mup and her dog, Badger, and her best friend Crow, walking through the witch-haunted woods of her grandmother’s kingdom.

I’ve animated sections of Victoria Semykina‘s beautiful cover artwork from the WalkerUK edition of the book.

Having lots of fun doing this (though I should really be working on my editorial notes for book two!)

Raggedy Witch Animation

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So while I’ve been working away on my agent’s notes for Book Two, I’ve also been fiddling with some animation for next year’s Raggedy Witches music video (I need to hand a timed reel over to the musician soon, so he can get on with writing the music)

Just realized I can do animated gifs from the main timeline!

It’s got to be a crime to be having this much fun.

Going Dark

I’m taking  the next two weeks off in order to finish book two of Wild Magic. I’ll literally be sending the Internet out the door so won’t be accessible at all via mobile phone, twitter, Facebook  or email.

Be good to each other while I’m gone. Be brave. Be critical. Resist.

See you on the other side,

Celine.

Raggedy Witch Conceptual Sketch

Been messing around a fair bit today, drawing conceptual artwork in preparation for the Raggedy Witches: Wild Magic animated video I hope to make next year. Mup and the Raggedy Witches may not stay looking like this but I quite like this image…

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Seriously : Leslie Odom Jr, Sara Bareilles

This. This. This. The beauty and power of this.

Octocon 2016 : schedule and sales room

I’ll be at a guest at Octocon  again this weekend! In case you don’t know, Octocon is a SFF convention held in Dublin – and one of the very few I feel comfortable attending. It’s small, friendly, and very creative-oriented which means it features a wealth of in-depth, stimulating (and fun) conversations between panels of professional writers and artists every year. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in reading/writing or viewing anything SFF oriented.

This year I’ll have a sales table (I don’t usually) As a tribute to my designers I’ll be selling those international editions of Moorehawke, Resonance and Into the Grey which feature my favourite covers and which aren’t usually available in Ireland.

I’ll also be selling Moorehawke, Resonance and Into the Grey related badges :D (see photo below)

Moorehawke, Resonance and Into the Grey badges.

OK, so below is my schedule for the weekend, if you feel like catching up with me specifically. You can also probably catch me in the sales room between panels. CLICK HERE for the full schedule and all the other fantastic guests 

Celine’s Schedule 

The Feels Panel: Punching People In The Heart

Friday 19:00 – 20:00, A. Tivoli/Yeats room (Camden Court Hotel)

Why do we like to be emotionally tortured by the fate of fictional characters? How do you break the frozen heart? Feels & How To Generate Them: a guide from the masters of making us cry.

Janet O’Sullivan (M), Diane Duane, Michael Carroll, Celine Kiernan

Adaptations

Saturday 10:00 – 11:00, A. Tivoli/Yeats room (Camden Court Hotel)

From the Wee Free Men to Star Trek to Judge Dredd, what are the elements you have to protect and where can you get away with innovation beyond style when moving from one medium to another?

Michael Carroll, Rhianna Pratchett, Diane Duane, Peter Morwood, Celine Kiernan, Janet O’Sullivan (M)

The Arc of Women’s Fandom

Saturday 14:00 – 15:00, E. Wexford room (Camden Court Hotel)

On the spaces women have been carving out for each other in fandom, the fandoms women create, and how those spaces can get taken away and reclaimed. Who are the women who built these spaces? What makes these spaces worth fighting for when they no longer feel safe? What makes women-led fandom unique?

Ruth F. Long, Maura McHugh, Celine Kiernan, Fionnuala Murphy (M)

Writers vs. Animators

Saturday 17:00 – 18:00, A. Tivoli/Yeats room (Camden Court Hotel)

Creating animation is a complex and sometimes rewarding process. Explore the path of the creative energy that crackles from one side of the drawing board to the other.

John Vaughan (M), Diane Duane, Peter Morwood, Celine Kiernan, Paul Bolger

Late Night Panel: LGBTQIA Representation In Genre Fiction

Saturday 19:00 – 20:00, C. Gaiety room (Camden Court Hotel)

We have gone from minor characters to major characters to being worried who represents us. From dying in the first act to being the lead. What works of fiction are moving LGBTQIA representation beyond being “those poor unfortunate souls”?

James Brophy (M), Dave Ferguson, Danielle Lavigne, Lora O’Brien, Ruth F. Long, Celine Kiernan

Identity & Narrative: A Response to Lionel Shriver

Foz Meadows’ excellent dissection of all that was wrong with Lional Shriver’s Brisbane keynote address.

shattersnipe: malcontent & rainbows

There is, I’ve come to realise, a certain type of hypocrisy that occurs when eloquent, successful practitioners of reflexive self-defence neglect to consider the consistency of their arguments. It’s a tactic which relies in large part on those arguments not being written down or otherwise recorded: it’s much harder to establish that your interlocutor is contradicting a prior claim if they’ve never made it to your face, or if no handy verbatim record exists, and especially if they deny ever having said it. Your memory must be to blame, or else your comprehension: either way, they’re in the right, and will doubtless continue to be so.

Unless, of course, a transcript is produced.

Lionel Shriver is not an author whose books I’ve ever read for the same reason that I’ve never subjected myself to Jonathan Franzen: the woes of modern day, middle class white people is a genre in which I have…

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Raggedy Witches 2 (The Wild Magic Trilogy)

Just so you know what has been keeping me so quiet recently. A teeny tiny bit of the new book:

Mup flew upwards through the falling snow, a red-coated dash of colour skimming the stones of the castle walls. She had kicked the window shut before leaping into the air, and she doubted Dr Emberly Snr would guess she’d gone outside. But she knew she needed to get to the roof as quickly as possible, and away from the prying eyes. Up she flew and up, zigging and zagging to avoid the windows, up and up until she was among the turrets and the gutters and grim stone faces of the gargoyles. She paused, floating. The ground was a postage stamp of white below her, the walls dropping sheer like cliffs.

She wasn’t even slightly afraid of the height.

The wind sliced across the peak of the roof, whipping the ears of her rabbit hat, flapping her scarf like a banner. I’m glad I grabbed my coat, she thought, tying the hat-ears below her chin and squinting up at the towers and turrets and roofs which still loomed above her. Why on earth does Crow like it so much up here?

She knew her friend would be on the highest tower, perched on the weather-vane. Dad called this Crow’s thinking place. Crow called it his sulking place. Mup suspected it was a little of both. After years of not being wanted, Crow wasn’t used to living with a family, and Mup knew he needed to be alone sometimes. More than that, Mup suspected Crow needed a place he could call his own. Cold and lonely and uncomfortable as it was, the roof had become Crow’s territory. He would retreat here in the same way that Mup might retreat to her bedroom, for a bit of peace and quiet. Mup had always respected that, and had never tried to intrude on his privacy.

Until today, that is. Today she didn’t hesitate to intrude, and she launched herself upwards, following her own shadow across the steep slopes of the roofs and around the snow-covered turrets until she got to the place where she knew Crow would be.

He was perched on the weather-vane, his back to her, watching the sky. A distant gang of ravens flew in loose formation, heading North. Mup could just about hear their rusty cries as she landed on the narrow ridge tiles.

She crouched for balance, still completely unafraid of the height. Snow dislodged from beneath her booted feet, rolled down the roof, and fell to the yard below. It was extraordinary to be up so high. Witches Borough stretched out on all sides: the frozen river, the miles of sleeping forest, and far off in the foggy distance the hint of snowy fields. By some trick of the architecture, the wind wasn’t so bad up here, and the snow fell quite peacefully all around them, the sky close and grey and soft as feathers.

Mup rose to her feet. At this movement, Crow spun around, startled, and Mup realised he hadn’t noticed her arrival. He covered his fright in a furious bristling of feathers. He hopped from foot to foot. He chattered his beak in outrage.

Mup held up her hand. ‘Crow, I need to talk.’

-0-

OK. Hope you enjoyed that. 

Back to work for me now, 

C